Malta eased their way past Ireland to score a convincing victory over opponents who could only offer token resistance despite facing the host team that had more youngsters in the side including goalkeeper Nicholas Grixti and Marc Lanzon.
After disposing of Serie A2 team, Sette Scogli on Wednesday, the Maltese, led by their nerve-centre Niki Lanzon, had it all their own way as they were faster in swimming and clearly superior in collective play throughout the four sessions.
Ben Plumpton, the youngest Maltese in the squad, scored a brace and underlined his promise, with the others all pulling their weight admirably.
Malta’s strike rate was regular despite some wastefulness in their finishing and the fact that they had several young faces in the water simultaneously.
They had no fewer than nine scorers. Matthew Zammit netted three, Clint Mercieca, two, and one each came from Andreas Galea, Kai Dowling, Christian Cluett, Alex Attard and Dino Zammit, apart from the nap-hand struck by Lanzon.
Summary
Malta 17
Ireland 2
(4-1, 3-0, 3-1, 7-0)
Malta: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 5, A. Galea 1, M. Rizzo, K. Dowling 1, M. Zammit 3, C. Cluett 1, Z. Mizzi, B. Plumpton 2, A. Attard 1, M. Grech, D. Zammit 1, C. Mercieca 2, M. Lanzon, N. Grixti.
Ireland: J. Cope, B. Matthews, G. Curley, E. Bridgeman, J. Krejak 1, A. Hanna, K. Johnston, J. Donelly 1, M Hanna, C. Devlin, J. Reilly, C. Colvin, D. O’Donell.
Referees: S. Salina, U. Wengenroth.
Other result
Livorno vs Sette Scogli - 5-21
Sessions: 0-4, 0-7, 0-4, 5-6.
Today: 5.45pm Switzerland vs Sette Scogli; 7pm Malta vs Livorno.